http://serendipity.lascribe.net language at my fingertips: le blog bilingue de Chris Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:08:06 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It was probably inevitable. . Will it end up in the Snowclones Database? http://serendipity.lascribe.net/ling-lang/linguistics/2008/07/a-snowclone-we-can-believe-in/ The BBC documentary How The Edwardians Spoke presents audio recordings of English speakers from various dialect areas, made in 1917: German dialectologists and sound recording specialists of the time travelled around the German prisoner-of-war camps to record samples of foreign dialects. These are unusual and quite stunning documents, preserved on ... http://serendipity.lascribe.net/ling-lang/linguistics/2007/10/edwardian-phonetics/ A day late, here’s a proper language instruction video, in the purest style of language instruction videos. A day late, but foreign tongues aren’t learnt in a day, ye scurvy dogs! (Hat tip: Chris Ambidge. Ahoi!) http://serendipity.lascribe.net/ling-lang/2007/09/speak-pirate/ Following the link to the World Meteorological Organization chart of weather symbols in Roger Shuy’s LL post, I wonder if Eskimos there are people who have a word for any of the following concepts: “freezing drizzle or rain (not showers), not now but during (the) past hour” or ... http://serendipity.lascribe.net/ling-lang/2007/09/not-now-but-during-past-hour/ Since last year, Transport for London has been running a series of posters aiming at improving passengers’ behaviour. To soften the underlying stern injunctions (”Don’t push!”, “Don’t block the closing doors to squeeze in at the last moment!”, “Keep your music volume down!”, “Don’t eat smelly or drippy food on ... http://serendipity.lascribe.net/ling-lang/2007/09/london-signage-03-mta-avoidance/ In my pursuit of acquiring at least some of the trappings of British geek and pop culture, getting a basic grasp on Doctor Who I came across a word that I hadn’t been aware the English language possessed. This is from last Staturday’s episode (”Utopia”), about 7 or 8 minutes in. ... http://serendipity.lascribe.net/ling-lang/2007/06/hein-hunh-hey-hrm/ The awesomest eye-chart ever. Though I can’t exactly see myself rattling off “GEORGIAN CAPITAL LETTER LAS, LEFTWARDS DASHED ARROW, GURMUKHI LETTER AI, GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMEGA WITH PROSGEGRAMMENI, TAMIL LETTER I, BOX DRAWINGS DOWN HEAVY AND UP HORIZONTAL LIGHT, ORIYA DIGIT SEVEN, ... http://serendipity.lascribe.net/ling-lang/2007/06/glimpsed-01/ So I’m quietly editing one of literally hundreds of overdue eggcorns — the lovely image of being in (a) high dungeon — when I come across a cite from an academic publication that so strikingly illustrates Hartman-Skitt-McKean’s Law of Prescriptivist Retaliation that I hesitate at first to believe my eyes. ... http://serendipity.lascribe.net/ling-lang/eggcorns/2007/06/unintended-consequences/ On the front page of this Saturday’s Guardian’s “Work” section, an article of a familiar genre: Under the heading Bad education, Emma-Jayne Jones and Robert Ashton bemoan the decline of spelling, punctuation and “grammar” skills, and the disastrous effect this has on the employment prospects of young people: Recruiters say ... http://serendipity.lascribe.net/ling-lang/2007/06/et-tu-grauniad/ I interrupt this blog’s unscheduled silence because of a disturbing annoucement. When I’m online, I almost constantly hang out on a few IRC chanels on the server irc.freenode.net (website). This message was broadcast this evening, about 10min ago: [22:17] -christel- [Global Notice] On the 12th September Rob Levin, known to many ... http://serendipity.lascribe.net/blogologie/2006/09/freenodes-lilo/